Retail Frenzy Lifts Three of Asia’s Top-Performing Stock Markets

  • Individual traders play huge role in Vietnam, Taiwan and Korea
  • Retail traders will continue to be an important force: Yang
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
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Three of Asia’s best-performing stock markets this year are also ones where individual investors are playing out-sized roles, underscoring the growing influence of retail traders around the world.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in VietnamBloomberg Terminal, where individuals account for about 90% of turnover and the VN Index has surged 20% in 2021, the most among major benchmarks in the region. Not far behind are tech powerhouses South Korea and Taiwan, where equity indexes have gained more than 10%. Retail traders are responsible for about 75% of transactions in Korea and around 70% of the turnover in Taiwan.